Published every Three Months. Sponsored
by an International Group of Theosophists.
Objectives: To uphold and promote the Original Principles of the modern
Theosophical Movement, and to disseminate the teachings of the Esoteric
Philosophy as set
forth by H.P. Blavatsky and her Teachers.
Editor: Boris de Zirkoff.
Subscriptions: $2.00 a year (four issues); single copy 50 cents. Send all
subscriptions, renewals and correspondence to: 615 South Oxford Avenue, Los
Angeles 5, California.
Make checks and money orders payable to "Theosophia."

None of the organized Theosophical Societies, as such, are responsible
for any ideas expressed in this magazine, unless contained in an official
document. The Editor is responsible for unsigned articles only.

*

THOUGHTS
TO REMEMBER …

“What then is Occultism? Occultism, I say, is the study of the
things which are occult, hid - realities in other words: not imaginary
things. If we accept this definition of the word - and I assure you that
it is the right and proper definition that Occultists themselves employ
- it becomes immediately obvious that Occultism must be the most serious
and important branch of human knowledge; and as genuine Occultists always
say that Occultism is founded on Nature herself, it therefore must be
the very cream of natural philosophy - using the words ‘natural philosophy’
in the sense of including all realms and spheres of the Universe and
particularly those of the inner, invisible, and causal realms.

“Occultism is the descriptive science of the things that are causal,
and therefore of the things which are in most instances invisible - Nature’s
funda­mental structure, operations, and ‘laws’; and anyone who studies
these realities and who has reached some understanding of them from individual
experience and insight and who delivers what he knows to his fellow-men,
is a true and genuine Occultist. But do not confuse this wide range of
experience possible to human beings with merely one or two or three more
or less disputed psychic faculties such as clairvoyance, clairaudience,
thought-transference, etc. …

“Occultism is the science of die things which are invisible … It is
an operative science but also a descriptive one. There is a way of going
behind the veils of Nature; there is a secret, a sacred, science, and
this science is Occultism. Occultism bears the same relation to Theosophy
that Wisdom bears to its Works among men. … When parts of this secret
and sacred Science
are delivered to men in formulated fashion, more or less openly and clearly
so that any who are worthy may receive and understand, that is Theosophy -
the Wisdom of the Gods, as given to mankind.” - Gottfried de Purucker, Questions
We All Ask, 2nd Series, pp. 255-57.[3]

*

WHERE DO WE STAND NOW? …Boris de Zirkoff

The future of the Theosophical Movement, especially in the last quarter
of this century, depends upon the degree to which the most active workers
with­in its ranks remain faithful to the original message of the Founders.

That original message is sufficiently definite in its outline and specific
in its pronouncements to serve as a touch­stone or a frame of reference
against which various temporary deviations cat, la, easily compared,
and thrown out if found wanting.

That message consists, to use H.P.B.’s own words, of “the direct teachings
of the Secret Doctrine which are now be­ing given out to the world ...
for the ­first time in the history of the sub­ject.” (Collected Writings,
IV, 401.) It is “the Great Doctrine - which the Theosophical Society,
faithful to the promise of its triple programme, is en­gaged in bringing
to light.” ( ibid., 378.)

Its most specific outline may be found in The Secret Doctrine (Vol.
I. pages 272 et seq., original edition, to the end of the Chapter) wherein
speaking with the authority of her occult status, gives a masterly outline
of those basic propositions of the Esoteric Philosophy which it is incumbent
on all Theosophists to promulgate.

These propositions are of a universal nature; hence they are the very
an­tithesis of dogmas. They are not the narrow statement of a belief,
and their understanding depends upon a state of mind which is devoid
of structural moulds, preconceived ideas, super­stitious and blind faith.
They challenge creative, independent thought, and can be accepted only
upon mature and many-sided consideration. They are the formulation in
present-day English of postulates of truth which, in languages now dead
and gone, were formulated in distant days by other branches of the same
occult School in various ethnic groups of mankind. They form but the
latest link in an age-long chain of similar efforts throughout history.

It should be clearly understood that the present-day Theosophical Move­ment
is not just another fraternal or­ganization made up of people who are merely seekers
of truth, although they are that, of course. It is not a body of students
whose main objective is to cull from here and there and everywhere articles
of truth, except, perhaps, as a side project. Their chief aim is to become
thoroughly familiar with the basic propositions of the Eso­teric Philosophy
in their original and specific outline, and to find ways and means to
disseminate them - often in much simpler language - through every open
channel available.

But in order to do so effectively, it is of paramount importance to
be able to distinguish between the original teachings and the many psychic
imag­inings and visionary divagations which the Theosophical Movement
has be­come victim of during the stormy years of its existence. This
calls for spiritual discrimination, careful reasoning, and a refusal
to accept anything on un­supported evidence or emotionalism.

If the Theosophical Movement is to [4] have a future at all,
id least as a con­structive spiritual force in this world of chaotic
unrest, it has to free itself from the dead weight of psychic bar­nacles
which cling to it today. Its pub­lished literature should be purged of
texts which not only confuse the main is­sues at stake, but in some cases
obscure altogether the spiritual foundations of the Movement and substitute
for them unsupported psychic revelations wholly at variance with the
original teachings. Either the Movement is to be the source of true spirituality,
and the repository of the unadulterated ancient Gnosis, as intended
by its original Founders, or it is to become in the years ahead a chaotic
maelstrom of various and sundry ideas, theories and vagaries which will
command neither the in­terest nor the respect of the thinking portion
of the human race.

The original impulse as initiated by the Teachers who sponsored the
out­ward form of the Movement was in­tended - as can be easily shown
by their own words - to promulgate an ancient doctrine well-nigh forgotten
in our present age of materialism. The propositions of that doctrine
were broadly outlined both in their own writings and in those of their
direct agent, H.P.B. It is our bounden duty to become imbued with the
nature, spi­rit and contents of these essential propositions, and to
refuse to accept any theories - however well meant - which obscure them
and confuse the issues involved. Unless this is done, and done consistently,
the future of the Movement as a spearhead of truth will be in jeopardy.

There are those in our midst who expect another direct agent of the
Brotherhood of Adepts to appear in the world in the last quarter of this
century. Be that as it may, the work of such an individual would be greatly
helped if the teachings of an earlier Messenger were thoroughly understood
by the active workers in the or­ganized Movement, and promulgated in
their original purity. Any confusion concerning these teachings, and
par­ticularly any psychic confusion, would be a sure signal for him or
her to with­draw from any identification with it, and to open up other
channels for the work at hand. Can we afford to run this risk?

It is high time for all of us to give ill's subject our undivided attention.

*

It has been decided to devote the greater part of our present issue
to the publication of two very important documents from the early days
of the Move­ment, which we trust, will be of interest and lasting value
to our many readers.

We recommend that the Editors of various
Theosophical magazines in non-English speaking countries would translate
these documents into their native tongues and publish them for the benefit
of their readers. - Editor, Theosophia. [5]

*

WHY I DO NOT RETURN TO INDIAH. P. Blavatsky

[This Open Letter, one of the
most extraordinary and deeply pathetic documents ever pruned by H.P.B.
may be found among the original Manuscripts in the Adyar Archives.
Written to the Indian Members of The Theosophical Society in the last
year of H.P.B.’ life, it is like a karmic vision that both interprets
the past and throws a flood of light upon the future. It embodies a
message from H.P.B.’s long-suffering heart to all Theosophists without
distinction. This Open Letter contains declarations very rarely made,
and pronouncements which only those will understand who are finely
rooted in the Theo­sophical philosophy and will not mistake them for
“claims,” “dogmas,” or delusions of grandeur. Facts and attitudes spoken
of in this Letter afford a background of meaning against which may be
measured various crises which took place in later years within the framework
of the T.S.
N. D. Khandalavala, quoting some short passages from
this Letter in The
Theosophist, Vol. IXX, October, 1898, pp. 23-21, states that it
was at first intended to be circulated to the Indian Members, but “was
afterwards, for certain reasons, not published.” He was permitted to
take a copy of it. With the “climate” prevailing at the time in the
Indian T.S., the reasons which Khandalavala does not specify are easy
to determine.
There seems to be no reason to doubt the accuracy
of a statement by W. E. Coleman in the Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago),
of September 16, 1893 , p. 266, that this Open Letter was send to India
by the intermediary of Bertram Keightley who left London for India at
the special request of H.P.B. sometime in the summer of 1890 reaching
Bombay August 31, 1890 (The Theosophist, Vol. XII, Suppl. to October,
1890, pp. ii-iii). He was soon elected General Secretary of the newly-formed
Indian Section of the T.S. which was chartered Jan. 1, 1891.
The Open
Letter the text of which appears below is one of the most important items
of “source material” available today for the use of the future historian
of the Theosophical Movement and its many vicissitudes. It deserves a
close study on the part of all students. - Editor, Theosophia.]

To My Brothers of Aryavarta,
In April, 1890, five years
elapsed since I left India.

Great kindness has been shown to me by many of my Hindu
brethren at various times since I left; especially this year (1890),
when, ill almost to death, I have received from several Indian Branches
letters of sympathy, and assurances that they had not forgotten her to
whom India and the Hindus have been most of her life far dearer then
her own Country. [6]

It is, therefore, my duty to explain why I do not return
to India and my attitude with regard to the new leaf turned in the history
of the T.S. by my being formally placed at the head of the Theosophical
Movement in Europe. For it is not solely on account of bad health that
I do not return to India. Those who have saved me from death at Adyar,
and twice since then, could easily keep me alive there as They do me
here. There is a far more serious reason. A line of conduct has been
traced for me here, and I have found among the English and Americans
what I have so far vainly sought for in India .

In Europe and America, during the last three years,
I have met with hundreds of men and women who have the courage to avow
their convictions of the real existence of the Masters, and who are working
for Theosophy on Their lines and under Their guidance,
given through my humble self.

In India, on the other hand, ever since my departure,
the true spirit of devotion to the Masters and the courage to avow it
has steadily dwindled away. At Adyar itself, increasing strife and conflict
has raged between personalities; uncalled for and utterly undeserved
animosity - almost hatred -has been shown towards me by several members
of the staff. There seems to have been something strange and uncanny
going on at Adyar, during these last years. No sooner does a European,
most Theosophically inclined, most devoted to the Cause, and the personal
friend of myself or the President, set his foot in Head­quarters, than
he becomes forthwith a personal enemy to one or other of us, and what
is worse, ends by injuring and deserting the Cause.

Let it be understood at once that I accuse no one. Knowing what I do
of the activity of the forces of Kali Yuga, at work to impede and ruin
the Theo­sophical movement, I do not regard those who have become, one
after the other, my enemies - but that without any fault of my own -
as I might regard them, were it otherwise.

One of the chief factors in the reawakening of Aryavarta
which has been part of the work of the Theosophical Society, was the
ideal of the Masters. But owing to want of judgment, discretion, and
discrimination, and the liberties taken with Their names and Personalities,
great misconception arose concern­ing Them. I was under the most solemn
oath and pledge never to reveal the whole truth to anyone, excepting
to those like Damodar, had been finally selected and called by Them.
All that I was then permitted to reveal was, that there existed somewhere
such great men; that some of Them were Hindus; that They were learned
as none others in all the ancient wisdom of Gupta Vidya, and had acquired
all the Siddhis, not as these are represented in tra­dition and the “blinds”
of ancient writings, but as they are in fact and na­ture; and also that
I was a Chela of one of Them. However, in the fancy of some Hindus, the
most wild and ridiculous fancies soon grew up concerning Them. They were
referred to as “Mahatmas” and still some too enthusiastic friends belittled
Them with their strange fancy-pictures; our opponents, de­scribing a
Mahatma as a full Jivanmukta, urged that, as such, He was debarred from
holding any communications whatever with persons living in the world. [7]

They also maintained that as this is the Kali Yuga, it was impossible
that there could be any Mahatmas at all in our age.

These early misconceptions notwithstanding, the idea
of the Masters, and belief in Them, has already brought its good fruit
in India. Their chief desire was to preserve the true religious and philosophical
spirit of ancient India; to defend the Ancient Wisdom contained in its
Darsanas and Upanishads against the systematic assaults of the
missionaries; and finally to reawaken the dormant ethical and patriotic
spirit in those youths in whom it had almost disappeared owing to college
education. Much of this has been achieved by and through the Theosophical
Society, in spite of all its mistakes and imperfections.

Had it not been for Theosophy, would India have had her Tukaram Tatya
doing now the priceless work he does, and which no one in India ever
thought of doing before him? Without the Theosophical Society, would
India have ever thought of wrenching from the hands of learned but unspiritual
Orientalists the duty of reviving, translating and editing the Sacred
Books of the East, of popu­larising and selling them at a far cheaper
rate, and at the same time, in a far more correct form than had ever
been done at Oxford? Would our respected and devoted brother Tukaram
Tatya himself have ever thought of doing so, had he not joined the Theosophical
Society? Would your political Congress itself have ever been a possibility
without the Theosophical Society? Most important of all, one at least
among you has fully benefited by it; and if the Society had never given
to India but that one future Adept (Damodar) who has now the prospect
of becoming one day a Mahatma, Kali Yoga notwith­standing, that alone
would be proof that it was not founded at New York and transplanted to
India in vain. Finally, if any one among the three hundred millions of
India can demonstrate, proof in hand, that Theosophy, the T.S., or even
my humble self, have been the means of doing the slightest harm, either
to the country or any Hindu, that the Founders have been guilty of teaching
pernicious doctrines, or offering bad advice - then and then only, can
it be imputed to me as a crime that I have brought forward the ideal
of the Masters and founded the Theosophical Society.

Aye, my good and never-to-be-forgotten Hindu Brothers, the name alone
of the holy Masters, which was at one time invoked with prayers for Their
bless­ings, from one end of India to the other - Their name alone has
wrought a mighty change for the better in your land. It is not to Colonel
Olcott or to myself that you owe anything, but verily to these names,
which, but a few years ago, had become a household word in your mouths.

Thus it was that, so long as I remained at Adyar, things
went on smoothly enough, because one or other of the Masters was almost
constantly present among us, and their spirit ever protected the Theosophical
Society from real harm. But in 1884, Colonel Olcott and myself left for
a visit to Europe, and while we were away the Padri-Coulomb “thunderbolt”
descended. I returned in November, and was taken most dangerously ill.
It was during that time and Colonel Olcott’s absence in Burma, that
the seeds of all future strifes, and - let me say at once - disintegration
of the Theosophical Society, were planted [8] by our enemies.
What with the Patterson-Coulomb-Hodgson conspiracy, and the faint-heartedness
of the chief Theosophists, that the Society did not then and there collapse
should be a sufficient proof of how it was protected. Shaken in their
belief, the faint-hearted began to ask: “Why, if the Masters are genuine
Mahatmas, have They allowed such things to take place, or why have they
not used Their powers to destroy this plot or that conspiracy, or even
this or that man and woman? Yet it had been explained numberless times
that no Adept of the Right Path will interfere with the just workings
of Karma. Not even the greatest of Yogis can divert the progress of Karma
or arrest the natural results of actions for more than a short period,
and even in that case, these results will only reassert themselves later
with even tenfold force, for such is the occult laws of Karma and the
Nidanas.

Nor again will even the greatest of phenomena aid real spiritual progress.
We have each of us to win our Moksha or Nirvana by our own merit, not
be­cause a Guru or Deva will help to conceal our shortcomings. There
is no merit in having been created an immaculate Deva or in being God;
but there is the eternal bliss of Moksha looming forth for the man who
becomes as a God and Deity by his own personal exertions. It is
the mission of Karma to punish the guilty and not the duty of any Master.
But those who act up to Their teaching and live the life of which They
are the best exemplars, will never be abandoned by Them and will always
find Their beneficent help whenever needed, whether obviously or invisibly.
This is of course addressed to those who have not yet quite lost their
faith in Masters; those who have never believed, or have ceased to believe
in Them, are welcome to their own opinions. No one, except themselves
perhaps some day, will be the losers thereby.

As for myself, who can charge me with having acted like an impostor?
with having, for instance, taken one single pie from any living soul?
with having ever asked for money, or even with having accepted it, notwithstanding
that I was repeatedly offered large sums? Those who, in spite of this,
have chosen to think otherwise, will have to explain what even my traducers
of even the Padri class and Psychical Research Society have been unable
to explain to this day, viz., the motive for such fraud. They
will have to explain why, in­stead of taking and making money, I gave
away to the Society every penny I earned by writing for the papers; why
at the same time I nearly killed my­self with overwork and incessant
labour year after year, until my health gave way, so that but for my
Master’s repeated help, I should have died long ago from the effects
of such voluntary hard labour. For the absurd Russian spy theory, if
it still finds credit in some idiotic heads, has long ago disappeared,
at any rate from the official brains of the Anglo-Indians.

If, I say, at that critical moment, the members of
the Society, and especially its leaders at Adyar, Hindu and European,
had stood together as one man, firm in their conviction of the reality
and power of the Masters, Theosophy would have come out more triumphantly
than ever, and none of their fears would have ever been realised, however
cunning the legal traps set for me, and [9] whatever mistakes
and errors of judgment I, their humble representative, might have made
in the executive conduct of the matter.

But the loyalty and courage of the Adyar Authorities, and of the few
Europeans who had trusted in the Masters, were not equal to the trial
when it came. In spite of my protests, I was hurried away from Headquarters.
Ill as I was, almost dying in truth, as the physicians said, yet I protested,
and would have battled for Theosophy in India to my last breath, had
I found loyal support. But some feared legal entanglements, some the
Government, while my best friends believed in the doctors’ threats that
I must die if I re­mained in India . So I was sent to Europe to regain
my strength, with a promise of speedy return to by beloved Aryavarta.

Well, I left, and immediately intrigues and rumours
began. Even at Na­ples already, I learnt that I was reported to be meditating
to start in Europe “a rival Society” and burst up Adyar (!!). At this
I laughed. Then it was rumoured that I had been abandoned by the
Masters, been disloyal to Them, done this or the other. None of it had
the slightest truth or foundation in fact. Then I was accused of being,
at best, a hallucinated medium, who had mis­taken “spooks” for
living Masters; while others declared that the real H. P. Bla­vatsky
was dead - had died through the injudicious use of Kundalini -
and that the form had been forthwith seized upon by a Dugpa Chela, who
was the present H. P. B. Some again held me to be a witch, a sorceress,
who for pur­poses of her own played the part of a philanthropist and
lover of India, while in reality bent upon the destruction of all those
who had the misfortune to be psychologised by me. In fact, the
powers of psychology attributed to me by my enemies, whenever a fact
or a “phenomenon” could not he explained away, are so great that they
alone would have made of me a most remarkable Adept - independently of
any Masters or Mahatmas. In short, up to 1886, when the S. P. R. Report
was published and this soap bubble burst over our heads, it was one long
series of false charges, every mail bringing something new. I will name
no one; nor does it matter who said a thing and who repeated it. One
thing is certain; with the exception of Colonel Olcott, everyone seemed
to banish the Masters from their thoughts and Their spirit from Adyar.
Every imaginable incongruity was connected with these holy names, and
I alone was held responsible for every disagreeable event that took place,
every mistake made. In a letter received from Damodar in 1886, he notified
me that the Masters’ influence was becoming with every day weaker at
Adyar; that They were daily represented as less than “second-rate Yogis,”
totally denied by some, while even those who believed in, and had remained
loyal to Them, feared even to pronounce Their names. Finally, he urged
me very strongly to re­turn, saying that of course the Masters would
see that my health should not suffer from it. I wrote to that effect
to Colonel Olcott, imploring him to let me return, and promising that
I would live at Pondicherry , if needed, should my presence not be desirable
at Adyar. To this I received the ridiculous answer that no sooner should
I return, than I should be sent to the Andaman Islands as a Russian spy,
which of course Colonel Olcott subsequently found out to [10] be
absolutely untrue. The readiness with which such a futile pretext for
keeping me from Adyar was seized upon, shows in clear colours the ingratitude
of those to whom I had given my life and health. Nay more, urged on,
as I understood, by the Executive Council, under the entirely absurd
pretext that, in case of my death, my heirs might claim a share in the
Adyar property, the President sent me a legal paper to sign, by which
I formally renounced any right to the Headquarters or even to live there
without the Council’s permission. This, although I had spent several
thousand rupees of my own private money, and had devoted my share of
the profits of The Theosophist to the purchase
of the house and its furniture. Nevertheless I signed the renunciation
without one word of protest. I saw I was not wanted, and remained in
Europe in spite of my ardent desire to return to India. How could I
do otherwise than feel that all my labours had been rewarded with ingratitude,
when my most urgent wishes to return were met with flimsy excuses and
answers inspired by those who were hostile to me?

The result of this is too apparent. You know too well
the state of affairs in India for me to dwell longer upon details. In
a word, since my departure, not only has the activity of the movement
there gradually slackened, but those for whom I had the deepest affections,
regarding them as a mother would her own sons, have turned against me.
While in the West, no sooner had I accepted the invitation to come to
London, than I found people - the S. P. R. Report and wild suspicions
and hypotheses rampant in every direction notwithstanding - to believe
in the truth of the great Cause I have struggled for, and in my own bona
fides.

Acting under the Master’s orders, I began a new movement
in the West on the original lines; I founded Lucifer, and the
Lodge which bears my name. Recognizing the splendid work done at Adyar
by Colonel Olcott and others to carry out the second of the three Objects
of the T.S., viz., to promote the study of Oriental literature,
I was determined to carry out here the two others. All know with what
success this has been attended. Twice Colonel Olcott was asked to come
over, and then I learned that I was once more wanted in India - at any
rate by some. But the invitation came too late; neither would my doctor
permit it, nor can I, if I would be true to my life-pledge and vows,
now live at the Headquarters from which the Masters and Their spirit
are virtually banished. The presence of Their portraits will not help;
They are a dead letter. The truth is that I can never return to India
in any other capacity than as Their faithful agent. And as, unless They
appear among the Council in propria persona (which They
will certainly never do now), no advice of mine on occult lines seems
likely to be accepted, as the fact of my relations with the Masters is
doubted, even totally denied by some; and I myself having no right to
the Headquarters what reason is there, therefore, for me to live at Adyar?

The fact is this. In my position, half-measures are
worse than none. People have either to believe entirely in me, or to honestly disbelieve.
No one, no Theosophist, is compelled to believe, but it is worse than
useless for people to ask me to help them, if they do not believe in
me. Here in Europe and [11] America are many who have never flinched
in their devotion to Theosophy; consequently the spread of Theosophy
and the T. S., in the West, during the last three years, has been extraordinary.
The chief reason for this is that I was enabled and encouraged by the
devotion of an ever-increasing number of members to the Cause and to
Those who guide it, to establish an Esoteric Section, in which I can
teach something of what I have learned to those who have confidence in
me, and who prove this confidence by their disinterested work for Theosophy
and the T. S. For the future, then, it is my intention to devote my
life and energy to the E.S., and to the teaching of those whose con­fidence
I retain. It is useless I should use the little time I have before me
to justify myself before those who do not feel sure about the real existence
of the Masters, only because, misunderstanding me, it therefore suits
them to suspect me.

And let me say at once, to avoid misconception, that my only reason
for accepting the exoteric direction of European affairs, was to save
those who really have Theosophy at heart and work for it and the Society
from being hampered by those who not only do not care for Theosophy,
as laid out by the Masters, but are entirety working against both, endeavouring
to undermine and counteract the influence of the good work done, both
by open denial of the existence of the Masters, by declared and bitter
hostility to myself, and also by joining forces with the most desperate
enemies of our Society.

Half-measures, I repeat, are no longer possible. Either
I have stated the truth as I know it about the Masters and teach what
I have been taught by them, or I have invented both Them and the Esoteric
Philosophy. There are those among the Esotericists of the inner group
who say that if I have done the latter, then I must myself be a “Master.”
However it may be, there is no alternative to this dilemma.

The only claim, therefore, which India could ever have upon me would
be only strong in proportion to the activity of the Fellows there for
Theosophy and their loyalty to the Masters. You should not need my presence
among you to convince you of the truth of Theosophy, any more than your
American brothers need it. A conviction that wanes when any particular
personality is absent is no conviction at all. Know, moreover, that any
further proof and teaching I can give only to the Esoteric Section, and
this for the following reason: its members are the only ones whom I have
the right to expel for open disloyalty to their pledge (not to me,
H.P.B., but to their Higher Self and the Mahatmic aspect of
the Masters), a privilege I cannot exercise with the F.T.S.’s at
large, yet one which is the only means of cutting off a diseased limb
from the healthy body of the Tree, and thus save it from infection. I
can care only for those who cannot be swayed by every breath of calumny,
and every sneer, suspicion, or criticism, whoever it may emanate from.

Thenceforth let it be clearly understood that the rest
of my life is devoted only to those who believe in the Masters, and are
willing to work for Theosophy as They understand it, and for the T.S.
on the lines upon which They originally established it. [12]

If, then, my Hindu brothers really and earnestly desire to bring about
the regeneration of India, if they wish to ever bring back the days when
the Masters, in the ages of India’s ancient glory, came freely among
them, guiding and teaching the people; then let them cast aside all fear
and hesitation, and turn a new leaf in the history of the Theosophical
Movement. Let them bravely rally round the President-Founder, whether
I am in India or not, as around those few true Theosophists who have
remained loyal throughout, and bid defiance to all calumniation and ambitious
malcontents - both without and within the Theosophical Society.

*

THE CLOSING CYCLEWilliam Quan Judge

[Originally published in The Irish Theosophist, Vol. 111, January
15, 1895 .]

In the November [1894] number the “expiring Cycle” is referred to by
Mr. Sinnett, and members are rightly warned not to be so absurd (though
that is my word) as to think that after 1897 “some mysterious extinguisher
will descend upon us.”

Who is the person who gave out the concrete statement that 1897 was
to be the close of a cycle when something would happen? It was H. P.
Blavatsky. There is not the slightest doubt about it that she did say
so, nor that she fully explained it to several persons. Nor is there
any doubt at all that she said, as had been so long said from the year
1875, that 1897 would witness the shutting of a door. What door? Door
to what? What was or is to end? Is the T.S. to end and close all the
hooks?

Nothing is more plain than that H. P. Blavatsky said, on the direct
authority of the Masters, that in the last twenty five years of each
century an effort is made by the Lodge and its agents with the West,
and that it erases in its direct and public form and influence with the
twenty-fifth year. Those who believe her will be­lieve this; those who
think they know more about it than she did will invent other ideas suited
to their fancies.

She explained, as will all those who are taught (as
are many) by the same Masters, that were the public effort to go on any
longer than that, a reaction would set in very similar to indigestion.
Time must be given for assimilation, or the “dark shadow which follows
all innovations” would crush the soul of man. The great public, the mass,
must have time and also material. Time is ever. The matter has been furnished
by the Masters in the work done by Blavatsky in her books, and what has
grown out of those. She has said, the Masters have said, and I again
assert it for the benefit of those who have any faith in me, that the
Masters have told me that they helped her write The Secret Doctrine so
that the future seventy-five and more years should have some material
to work on, and that in the coming years that book and its theories would
be widely studied. [13] The material given has then to be worked
over, to be assimilated for the welfare of all. No extinguisher will
fall therefore on us. The T.S., as a whole, will not have the incessant
care of the Masters in every part, but must grow up to maturity on what
it has with the help to come from those few who are “chosen.” H. P. Blavatsky
has clearly pointed out in the Key, in her conclusion, that the plan
is to keep the T.S. alive as an active, free, unsectarian body during
all the time of waiting for the next great messenger, who will be herself
beyond question. Thereby will be furnished the well-made tool with which
to work again in grander scale, and without the fear­ful opposition she
had without and within when she began this time. And in all this time
of waiting the Master, “that great Initiate, whose single will upholds
the entire movement,” will have his mighty hand spread out wide behind
the Society.

Up in 1897 the door is open to anyone who has the courage,
the force, and the virtue to TRY, so that he can go in and make a communication
with the Lodge which shall not be broken at all when the cycle ends.
But at the striking of the hour the door will shut, and not all your
pleadings and cryings will open it to you. Those who have made the connection
will have their own door open, but the public general door will be closed.
That is the true relation of the “extinguisher” as given by H. P. Blavatsky
and the Master. It seems very easy to understand.

“Many are called but few are chosen,” because they would not allow
it. The unchosen are those who have worked for themselves alone; those
who have sought for knowledge for themselves without a care about the
rest; those who have had the time, the money, and the ability to give
good help to Masters’ cause, ago de­fined by them to be work for man­kind
and not for self, but have not used it thus. And sadly, too, some of
the unmarked and unchosen are those who walked a long distance to the
threshold, but stopped too long to hunt for the failings and the sins
they were sure some brother pilgrim had, and then they went back farther
and far­ther, building walls behind them as they went. They were called
and almost chosen; the first faint lines of their names were beginning
to develop in the book of this century; but as they retreated, thinking
indeed, they were inside the door, the lines faded out, and other names
flashed into view. Those other names are those belonging to humble persons
here and there whom these proud aristocrats of occultism thought unworthy
of a moment’s notice.

What seems to me either a printer’s error or a genuine
mistake in Mr. Sinnett’s article is on page 26, where he says: “will
be knowledge generally diffused through the cultured classes.”
The italics are mine. No greater error could seem possible. The cultured
classes arc perfectly worthless, as a whole, to the Master-builders of
the Lodge. They are good in the place they have, but they represent the
“established order” and the acme of selfishness. Substitute masses for cultured
classes, and you will come nearer the truth. Not the cultured but
the ignorant masses have kept alive the belief in the occult and the
psychic now fanned into flame once more. Had we trusted to the cultured
the small ember would long ago have been [14] extinguished. We
may drag in the cultured, but it will be but to have a languid and unenthusiastic
interest.

We have entered on the dim beginning of a new era already.
It is the era of Western Occultism and of special and definite treatment
and exposition of theories hitherto generally considered. We have to
do as Buddha told his disciples: preach, promulgate, expound, illustrate,
and make clear in detail all the great things we have learned. That is
our work, and not the bringing out of surprising things about clairvoyance
and other astral matters, nor the blinding of the eye of science by discoveries
impossible for them but easy for the occultist. The Master’s plan has
not altered. He gave it out long ago. It is to make the world at large
better, to prepare a right soil for the growing out of the powers of
the soul, which are dangerous if they spring up in our present selfish
soil. It is not the Black Lodge that tries to keep back psychic development;
it is the White Lodge. The Black would fain have all the psychic powers
full flower now, because in our wicked, mean, hypocritical, and money-getting
peo­ple they would soon wreck the race. This idea may seem strange, but
for those who will believe my unsupported word I say it is the Master’s
saying.

*

GETTING TO HEAVEN ON A PROMISSORY NOTEMontague A. Machell

Earthly circumstances and experiences, could we but
realize their true value, are designed to convince us that all earthly
existence becomes a revelation of the kind of person we are. Every one
of these experiences is subject to our own coloring and shaping. What
we call it, is always governed
by our approach to it, and the light in which we view it. Be it heaven,
or be it hell, we name and shape it. Every day of our lives we are living
out some aspect of ourselves, and giving that aspect “a local
habitation and a name.”

Failing to realize this fact has bred in us the habit
of believing that the world we live in is one that has been visited upon
us, instead of being a fantasy of our own creation. Because of this habit,
we waste no end of time and energy trying to exchange “our world” for
another one, instead of investigating the point of view we have voluntarily
chosen regarding the circumstances in which we find ourselves (an investigation
on which the law of Karma might throw valuable light!). Those circumstances,
being in the first place colorless, our endeavor should obviously be
carefully to ex­amine the coloring we have given them, that we may find
out just how “true to life” it really is. This means turning our search inward instead
of outward.

There is much to be said for the soundness of the admonition,
“man, know thyself,” since everything we think, say or do affords a glimpse
of the country of the self. All our life is a reflection of the thoughts,
aspirations, desires inside of us, cast upon the colorless circumstances
of earthly existence. Because, by the law of life, we all live from
within outward, it is [15] the inner world of the self concerning
which we have to be eternally vigilant. Insofar as that inner world is
rooted in the divine Greater Self, external circumstances are purely
relative, and susceptible to illumination from within. So eternally true
is this that many of life’s most trying experiences can reveal themselves
as opportunities for growth. For this to be true, however, we must disdain
the notion that we are “victims” of life, by falling back on the ever-victorious
Higher Self. Of course, if we build our life on personality - that of
ourselves and others - we are asking for all the frustrations, prejudices,
and annoyances that such superficial living invites. “To thine own self
be true!” From the moment we insist upon thinking and choosing in terms
of the Greater Self, we rise above the spikes and spurs of shallow personalities.

Theosophy stresses the fact that, the purpose of all earthly existence
being spiritual unfoldment, the circumstances in which the disciple finds
himself must not be run away from, but used as means of inner growth.
At no time is he encouraged in view that growth as his own private prerogative
merely, but as part of the destiny of the human race. Viewing humanity
as a mighty Brotherhood of Unfoldment, in which each seeks, by his own
growth, to help forward the growth of all, he “lives to benefit mankind,”
by slowly enriching earth’s atmosphere of spiritual fulfillment.

Should one ask himself “How can I make my life utterly real,”
the answer might be: “Dedicate your living to uninterrupted growth of
the inner Reality of all life.” In this relation, “Reality” in any human
life must be measured in terms of inner unfoldment: “To thine
own self be true!” i.e., accept for your life a program of interior
spiritual growth first. Let all else become contributary to that; ally
other aspect of “significance” must come secondary in importance. (This,
needless to say, may block much social or political advancement!)

The Spiritual Self is your one Re­ality. The world
in which you live is likely at any lime to offer but feeble contributions
to that reality. Once you have clearly perceived it, no substitute will
suffice. Meanwhile, your ultimate triumph must be a successful imposition
of this Reality upon the illusion in the midst of which the SELF must
un­fold. This is your initial step in creat­ing Heaven on Earth - HERE,
NOW. Against it are arrayed all the illusory host of body, mind, emotions
and senses - all-powerful liegemeu of the human personality. Above that
hostile army Reality must reign supreme.

The only way in which most of us can consistently hold
off the enemy is by choosing uncompromisingly the Ra­tionality of Reality
over the Chaos of Illusion. Reality is Divinity in control; Illusion
is a lesser self yielding up the life to destructive subversion, a sub­version
manifesting in too many under­takings and organizations in today’s society.
May not these prove to be, ultimately, an expression of the Insanity
of Selfishness in which the Lesser seeks to dominate the Greater?

In the enlightened disciple rationality assumes a heroic
stance, pledging allegiance to the godlike in man rather than to his
unenlightened humanness. From this stance he daily builds into his earthly
existence a wordless reverence for life, as the stage on which [16] all
eternal spiritual drama is being enacted, a drama which takes first place,
exceeding all else in importance since it has to do with the ultimate
destiny of every man.

In these terms life takes on a sublime significance, an intelligent
awareness of which can illuminate all its events and circumstances, giving
them their appropriate places in the Universal Pattern. Life thus reveals
itself as the fine art of fitting events of daily living into a harmonious
mosaic of Spiritual Realization, in which every experience achieves added
meaning. Life’s supreme miracles have their birth in the heart of man,
miracles infinitely transcending “Getting to Heaven on a promissory Note”!
Disdaining this questionable transaction, the enlight­ened man will invest
with heavenly meaning this erstwhile “hell” of earthly existence.

“Behold, the mellow light that floods the Eastern sky.
In signs of praise both heaven and earth unite. And from the four-fold
manifested Powers a chant of love ariseth, both from the flaming Fire
and flowing Water, and from sweet-smelling Earth and rushing Wind”. - The
Voice of the Silence.

*

THEOSOPHY UNDER FIRE
A MINIATURE “KEY TO THEOSOPHY”

Covering Basic Theosophical Teachings and Organizational Functioning
of the Point Loma Theosophical Society.

Questions asked by Opposing Counsel in a Bona Fide Lawsuit;
Answers given under Oath by Iverson I. Harris, then Chairman of the Society’s
Cabinet.

This is a most interesting and historically
valuable verbatim transcript of a deposition dating from February, 1945,
published privately by Mr. Harris (Copyright, 1970), mainly on account
of its intrinsic value as a succinct presentation of the Theosophical
Philosophy, in answer to various searching, and at times tricky, questions.

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